Week 10 Story: The Girl and the Wild Dog

Ever since Molly was a little girl, she longed to have a companion. She wanted someone to make her feel safe and secure no matter what she was going to. As a child, however, she was not allowed to have a companion among her people, as they were thought to be dangerous and it was not allowed. Because of this rule, Molly lived an unhappy lifestyle filled with sadness.

One day, when Molly was older, she decided to leave her tribe to see what the world had to offer. She knew that if she stayed cooped up with the same people and same rules, that she would be filled with regret. With that thought in mind, Molly packed up her essentials and vanished from all of the people she knew to seek her companionship that she desired. She didn't entirely know what she was doing, but Molly thought that the unknown would be better than what she already had.

The first several days on her own were rough. Molly was lost and didn't know exactly what direction to go or what she was going to encounter. She slept on the cold rigid floor of the outside world through the dark nights and was afraid of the creaky noises. She questioned her decision to leave her tribe, as loneliness was starting to creep back in to her life. There was no way she could go back, too, even if she was able to find her way. The people would not be so forgiving. In her thoughts as Molly continued her journey, she noticed from the corner of her eye that there was a creature following her. A little bit scared, Molly knew not to make any sudden or quick movements as to scare off what was behind her. Devising a plan, Molly was able to climb a quick tree to get out of harm's way. Once up the tree, she noticed the most adorable little animal lost in her tracks.

Molly called out to the creature and he seemed timid and unsure of what to do, so she became brave and climbed down from the tree to get a closer look. When Molly locked eyes with wild dog, she immediately knew that she had found what she was looking for. The calmed the dog down and asked it what it's name was. He told her his name was Charles, and that he got separated from his dog tribe. He seemed to have had a hurt leg and asked Molly for some assistance in helping him to get back home, saying that there would be some type of reward if she was able to. She agreed and the two were on their way.

Searching day and night, the two companions were able to finally reach their destination and find the dog's tribe. The wild dog gave the girl a slobbery kiss and wagged his tail with excitement for helping to find his family. Molly was unsure of what to do now, but Charles comforted her and asked her to make a wish. After she made the wish, a special ceremony was performed and she became a dog with Charles. They lived a long and happy life together with puppies and security.

(Wild puppies)

Author's Note: I was inspired by one of the stories from the Native American Marriage Tales called "The Dog-Husband". The original story was way different then the one I am telling and had to do with after the dog and the girl were already together. I also changed the original story, but still isolated the girl from the tribe like she had been. Molly is looking for a companion throughout the story and encounters a dog when she is lost. She helps the dog find his way, and is welcomed with open arms into his tribe. I like happy endings as well, so I gave the story one!

Bibliography: Native American Marriage Tales by Stith Thompson

Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales; Part B

The first story in Part B was called "The Dog-Husband". I was excited to read the story because it started off strong, but personally it was a little different than I anticipated. It began with a girl and a dog and at night the dog would turn into a man to sleep with the little girl. Eventually the girl got pregnant and the towns people were not very happy with what happened. The town people destroyed everything and left the girl behind with the puppies she gave birth to. I think I should change the ending of the story if I decide to use this as inspiration for a new story. The ending was a little confusing to understand. The puppies became human again somehow and caught whales. There was also a Crow involved who brought the people back to the town? Not my favorite story, but there are some good ideas that can come from it.

(Puppy running) 

The next story was "The Youth Who Joined the Deer". The story began with the a hunter that had two wives. He was very fond of deer and liked to go hunting. One time he went looking for a deer that he saw the tracks in and came across a woman who wanted him to be his husband. He was then brought back to the Indians and had sex with the woman when he was not supposed to. I didn't like ending to this story very much either. The husband felt bad about leaving his other wives, but this new woman told him to not worry very much about it. Later on in the story he went out hunting and killed some deer. Their bones brought them to life somehow. I liked that idea of bringing the bones back to life as something. I would make a lot of changes to this story to make it flow better. Some aspects were good, but I would maybe add more dialogue.

The last story I wanted to mention for Part B was "The True Bride". I actually enjoyed this story. It had to do with somewhat of an evil stepmother and step sister. The stepmother sent out the other daughter to find berries in the snow even though she knew that berries did not exist in the snow. The daughter went out anyways and got help from her brothers and returned with berries and new clothes. The stepmother wanted the other daughter to do the same, but instead the daughter was rude and did not come back with nicer things. There are a lot of things I could do with the ending of the story. I like the idea of an evil stepmom and stepsister. Happily ever after fairytales are very fun and I think I could do a twist to maybe make the stepmother less evil after something bad happens to her.


Bibliography: Native American Marriage Tales by Stith Thompson

Reading Notes: Native American Marriage Tales; Part A

The first story in this reading was very interesting. It was called "The Piqued Buffalo-Wife". The beginning of the story started out with a buffalo-cow trying to find his human father that helped his buffalo mother and bring them together. The buffalo-cow had to go through a few trials to find the Indian man that did so and he was able to identify him correctly through all the people. When he brought them together, the human father was not supposed to use fire around the mother, but he did so one time when he was angry and the mother and son disappeared. The father felt remorseful and had to go through a few trials to try to find his buffalo-calf son and see if he could correctly identify him. The man was able to pick his son out a few times by different signals, but on the last trial, he was not successful. The father was then trampled by the heard and eventually they found his bones to give to his family and they turned into human being. I thought that this story gave me a lot of different ideas for my own writing. I like the different trials of identification, and also how the buffalo was trying to bring the human father together with the buffalo mom. I also liked how they turned into human beings after.

(headdress of the Matoki Society)

"Bear-Woman and Deer-Woman" was the next story in Part A and I thought it was cool how they were still mixing humans and animals. The into made it seem like something was not going to be successful. These two woman were wives of Chickenhawk men. From the story it seemed that the families of both of these woman were very close. That was true until the Bear decided to bite of the Doe's head and burn it. When the Bear returned, the Doe's children were skeptical and knew that that was their mother. The Bear made them not worry too much about it and so they went of the play with the Bear's children. The Doe's decided to kill the Bears and take them back to the mother Bear and tell them that they were skunks that they killed for dinner. The mother Bear believed them, and then someone mentioned that she was eating her own children. They called her out for killing a person then eating her children's hands. This story was a bit weird, but I like how had a twist and I was not anticipating what was going to happen. I think I could incorporate something like this into one of my stories, by thinking of a weird twist.

The last story that I felt inspired by was, "The Eagle and Whale Husbands". The story had a unique concept to it. There were little girls playing by the shore with eagle bones and whale bones. I thought that part was kind of weird, but could be fun to have random animal parts lying around that transform into other things. The girls then wished for a husband, one an Eagle and the other a Whale husband. Their wishes came true and they were then taken off with an Eagle and a Whale. The little girls did not like this and tried to escape because they felt trapped. They were both successful, but the animals were not. The animals ended up dead. I think it could by creative to continue a storyline with this and have the children trapped and something more happening to them instead of just allowing them to escape. It would have been cool if they turned into the animal or something.



Bibliography: Native American Marriage Tales by Stith Thompson